PLS READ - Min. 20 Post Count

Hi Everyone,
It is happening more and more that people are signing up just to
sell their golf equipment here and not offering anything else.
They sell their gear, make their money and move on.

We do not mind providing this service for free but would like to
make sure that we are offering our regular users this service and
not newbie users.

SO...

You must now have a minimum post count of 20 to place an ad here
in the Classifieds. That way we know you have given something to
the forums and no doubt helped someone or offered useful
commentary.

We think that this is fair and hopefully rewards those of you who
visit often and offer their time, which we really appreciate.

Posts from members under the 20 mark will be deleted. We will also delete your classified if you post 20 useless posts to achieve the milestone quicker. You reward us with 20 quality posts and we'll reward you with a free way to sell your gear.

Bebox

PS - Thanks to the recent suggestions by a few of our regulars
about this topic.

It was actually suggested by several of our readers. Why should
we provide a free way for someone to sell to the largest online
golf audience in Australia when they are not offering anything to
our forums. They come in once, sell an item and never return.

It costs a tremendous amount of money to run this site so we
think it is fair that people need to give something back in
return for us allowing them to make money.

20 posts is very little but at least shows you are offering
soemthing to the community here.

I don't believe I agree with this concept Bebox. I have been
around a very long time on this group and have just recently
climbed above 200, 50 would have taken me 6 months.

Furthermore, I love buying golf clubs, if Joe Schmo joins up just
to sell his gear, GREAT!!! That is a plus for me, not a negative,
even if the odd 'dimwit' try's to claim he ripped off
everyone and spoils things every now again. So I vehemently
oppose such an extreme form of regulation.

It was actually suggested by several of our readers. Why should
we provide a free way for someone to sell to the largest online
golf audience in Australia when they are not offering anything
to our forums. They come in once, sell an item and never
return.

It costs a tremendous amount of money to run this site so we
think it is fair that people need to give something back in
return for us allowing them to make money.

20 posts is very little but at least shows you are offering
soemthing to the community here.

Sounds fine but you should clarify if it is 20 or 50 post as you
have stated 50 post in the body and 20 in the heading.

I agree bebox, this forum is for discussing golf.
If people want to sell eqipment they can go to ebay.
Stick with it. 50 is good.

Incorrect Brew, the Golf Classifieds area is clearly for selling
golf clubs, whilst other areas are for Golf Talk, and some even
post on AFL, NRL, Soccer and the Pope.

Surely it is to our benefit as users, to have as many people sell
their gear here as possible. Hell we even convince a few people
to come back. But this 'must be one of us' 20/50 post
limit smacks of outright snobbery. It saddens me that we feel the
need to be so insular.

OK Bebox, how many members have only ever posted in Golf
Classifieds as a seller? Second, has anyone posted a sale first
and gone on to hang around posting in other forums. If we are
going to become isolationist I would like to know why?

Good idea! I was thinking of raising the topic of perhaps having
a previous post history to buy something offered for sale. Why?
Because recently someone who wanted to buy an item I had for sale
on this forum wanted it sent COD. He had signed up 2 days
beforehand. I decided to not proceed and the other party
understood my reasons as all the risk of the sale falling over
was on my end.

A previous post history does provide some reasurance of the
person on the other end of the transaction.

I agree that there must be some history on this forum prior to
placing an advertisement here. I'm more likely to make a
purchase from someone here who has some history. I have recently
recommended a purchase based on this criteria and felt safe
recommending that seller even though I had never met them.

I don't think any the regular forum users would like to see
this forum become another 'used golf sale yard'. It would
remove the focus of this forum.

Good idea! I was thinking of raising the topic of perhaps
having a previous post history to buy something offered for
sale. Why? Because recently someone who wanted to buy an item I
had for sale on this forum wanted it sent COD. He had signed up
2 days beforehand. I decided to not proceed and the other party
understood my reasons as all the risk of the sale falling over
was on my end.

A previous post history does provide some reasurance of the
person on the other end of the transaction.

So how does a person making 20 posts, give you any more security
than a person making one? It will still be a transaction based on
blind faith. BTW COD is exactly how most transactions should be
carried out, as the seller you only risk the cost of postage, as
the buyer must pay the PO cash to obtain the goods. If he
doesn't front you get your club back, this issue is exactly
the same on ebay. The only difference is ebay doesn't require
you to have a rating of 20 before you can bid on anything.

This idea protects no-one, and achieves nothing but to restrict
the number of people who can participate in our forums, this is
just wrong, and it makes me cringe.